


Partners

by SleepsWithCoyotes



Series: Mascotverse [5]
Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Chocobos, Gen, Not Crisis Core Compliant, Rider Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-01
Updated: 2016-03-01
Packaged: 2018-05-24 04:13:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6141136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SleepsWithCoyotes/pseuds/SleepsWithCoyotes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zack meets Skadi.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Partners

**Author's Note:**

> For a prompt from strobelighted: _Chocobo action, especially if it involves Skadi._ Thanks to a_mere_trifle for proofreading! All remaining errors are completely my own.

The cavalry had taken a backseat to more modern means of troop transport after the war, but Shinra never disarmed, never demobilized. They maintained their stables in tip-top condition, three staff officers kept busy five days a week looking for new stock, making the rounds of the breeders and the wranglers. Except for the racing circuit--and they had their own standards of excellence--Shinra had what was arguably the finest collection of birds in the world.

Which didn't mean that they didn't also have their share of splay-toed, chip-feathered, Levrikon-necked cannon-fodder. It was just kept to a minimum, was all, set aside for the poor bastards the supply sergeants had a problem with.

Zack wasn't expecting much when he walked into the stables, requisition papers folded in hand. He'd already snuck a look at them and hadn't been completely surprised to find that he'd be getting this bird on permanent reserve. Even if he didn't get bumped up to First after this, a SOLDIER Second Class still needed something to ride, now and then. If the poor beastie they scrounged up for him was too broken-down, he'd deal with it when the time came.

Spotting the man he'd been told to look for, he made his way down the main stable aisle and sketched a brief salute, holding out his papers a moment later. "Sergeant Brecht? I'm here to requisition a chocobo."

"Of course you are," the sergeant grumbled, eyeing him with distinct displeasure. "Bit early, aren't you?"

Zack got the feeling he didn't mean early in the day, just early in his career. "Just got my orders," he said, not bothering with the self-deprecating shrug he'd have given anyone else, willing to meet these guys halfway but no further. He'd work, though, and show them all that he deserved to be here, deserved to be riding out tomorrow with the General himself and that there wasn't anything they could throw at him that he couldn't take. Eventually they'd get tired of hazing him and move on. And if they didn't, then he'd deal with that too.

"Right. Well, come with me, hotshot. You're in luck. It just so happens that the best hen in the stable is looking for a rider. I'm sure you'll have a lot in common."

Zack clenched his teeth but kept smiling. It wasn't like he hadn't heard _that_ one before, though it'd been worded a bit differently each time. What he really ought to be paying attention to was this guy's definition of 'best,' because he needed something that could at least _try_ to keep up with that fine black demon the General had eating out of his hand.

"Here you go, hotshot," the sergeant said with an unpleasant grin, stopping in front of an empty stall and waving his hand grandly at...another empty stall?

Zack took a step closer and was about to peer inside when he heard the rustle of straw one door down. Glancing once at the still-smirking officer and figuring the wicked, contemptuous glint in the man's eyes meant exactly what he thought it did, he made for that third stall, steeling himself for just about anything.

"I wouldn't get too close the first time, if I were you," the sergeant called in a mockery of concern. "Let her get your scent first. Of course, then she'll be able to _track_ you, but you gotta take your chances, right?"

Stopping in front of the double-barred half-door, Zack looked in and utterly forgot to breathe.

She was tall for a hen, almost as massive as Sephiroth's black, a streamlined collection of muscle and gleaming feathers. White from crest to tail, she almost glowed in the dim light of the stables, her green eyes cold and watchful. The long, knifepoint plumes of her crest lifted as he stared, clear threat in her aggressive posture, but he didn't care about any of that.

"Odin's Eye...you're _gorgeous,"_ he breathed, ignoring the little voice that told him he was missing the point, that a white chocobo was going to stand out like a flag, and that he'd heard rumors about a white chocobo quartered here that was both magnificent and utterly untamable.

The white hen cocked her head reluctantly, crest feathers relaxing at half-mast, not quite smooth but not quite promising his untimely death, either. She looked willing to listen, in fact, and Zack had no qualms at all about laying it on thick and fast.

"Yeah, and you know it, too, don't you? Well, I don't blame you one bit. Gods, I've never seen anything like you. Best hen in the stables, I heard--and thank the gods for that, because they're sending me out with the General tomorrow, and I didn't know how I was going to keep up with that black of his until I saw you. I bet you could run Draugr right into the ground, couldn't you?"

Slowly, very slowly, her feathers smoothed out, her eyes piercing him with an unblinking look. Taking the last two unhurried steps to put him right in front of her stall, Zack folded his arms and leaned against the door, never taking his eyes off hers.

"Damn right, you can. Where did they steal you from, anyway? We had whites where I grew up--lots of forest around Gongaga, you know--but there's no way you're townbred. Did they pull you out of the Bone Forest up north? Nah--there's nothing too dangerous in there, and you're a battlehen through and through, aren't you? Goblin Island, maybe? Or what about that place above Cosmo Canyon?"

She was definitely listening to him, and while it could just be that the soft, friendly sound of his voice was winning her over, Zack would be the last person to scoff at the tales he'd heard of chocobo intelligence.

"Because I've got to tell you, gorgeous, if you come with me, it's not going to be an easy ride for either of us. We're going to be hunting monsters, and the General's going to run us all over creation, and there's going to be all sorts of people hoping to see us fail. Only I don't plan on that, and you don't look like you'd be too keen on the idea, either. So, what do you say? Partners?" he asked, holding out his hand.

She glanced at it once before her eyes snapped back to his, but he didn't say anything else, knowing the choice would have to be hers. He was a SOLDIER, sure, and he had all the strength he needed to wrestle a recalcitrant bird into following his commands, but that wasn't riding. And anyway, he needed a bird that would stick with him through thick and thin, and that was something you only got with trust.

Stalking forward two jerky paces, remnants of her earlier aggression stiffening her stride, the white hen considered him for a long, frozen minute before ducking her head down just enough to allow him to skritch that good spot at the base of her skull, the only place a chocobo couldn't preen herself.

"Thanks, beautiful," he murmured through his grin, gazing up at her admiringly. "I won't make you look bad, I promise. I'll give it all I've got."

 _What's her name?_ he'd ask later, and _Skadi,_ he'd be told in a tone of stark disbelief, but by then he'd already dismissed all the rumors he'd ever heard of her as blatant fabrications. There were rumors about him, too, and the only times he'd been on his back to get this promotion were on a practice mat like everybody else, winded and bruised and getting up to try that move again, _with_ the proper counter this time, Mr. Hotshot. They were just jealous because his girl didn't take any nonsense from anyone.

It really was funny, though, that she almost had Sephiroth's eyes.


End file.
